Built Lord Tough Series: Becoming Strong for the Off-road times of Life
“Hitting the Road”
Paul the apostle is about ready to “Hit the Road.” When we read second Timothy, it should be with a heightened anticipation of what he has to say to Timothy and to us all. These are the last recorded writings of the Apostle Paul. It is no wonder that these last words might be read with great anticipation. If it were a last will and testament, we might all be asking, “What did he leave me?” Well friends he has left us much. If these were the words of a “death bed confession” we, with anticipation would ask, “What has he done?” Paul will tell us not only what he has done but what God has done for us as well. Just like the last words of encouragement that are uttered by a parent or grandparent on how to live, thrive and survive, these are Paul’s last words to his spiritual child Timothy. You see Timothy came to know Christ in his teen years during Paul’s ministry in the city of Lystra, in Asia Minor. And, you always hang on those last words of advice, for they are the words that mean the most to those who are “Hitting the Road.”
Paul has spent many months on the back-roads of life. You might say that his entire adult life was a back road experience. He has spent time in many jails, beaten repeatedly for his faith. He has suffered tongue lashings and back stabbings that had to have thrown him into the depths of despair many times. Today, as he writes, he is in the depths of the biggest off road experience of his life. Tradition tells us that shortly after writing this letter Paul was taken from the depths of the Mamertine Dungeon just across the street from the senate building in the Roman Forum, out onto the Ostian Way, led outside of the City of Rome and there on an April morning was beheaded.
But this morning, through the light of an open hole in the roof, piercing the darkness of a circular cell, beside the river in a dank, dark and cold cell, Paul writes this last letter to Timothy…Sam…Shaun…Minnie…Susan and David. If you are in your off road times of life, these words of encouragement are for you. If you have already traversed your of road times of life, you will receive additional strength for the downhill journey. If your off road times are ahead of you, perhaps the path will not be so steep nor the way so rocky. Whether you are young enough to “shift on the fly,” or old enough that you have to park it and “lock the hubs in,” we will in this series learn to grow strong and become “Built Lord Tough.” This sermon series originates from n experience I had nearly twenty years ago at a pastor’s conference where Ray Stedman brought a study of 2 Timothy to over 500 pastors. I will be using those notes in much of this series.
The atmosphere of this letter reflects the off-road circumstances of Paul’s life. Paul is lonely: He will say in the section we read this morning, “I long night and day to see you.” He is feeling abandoned: He writes later in the first chapter, “All those in Asia have turned against me.” (2 Timothy 1:15) “Only Luke is with me,” (2 Timothy 4:11) “Demas has forsaken me and gone to Thessalonica. (2 Timothy 4:10) He is cold of body: He asks Timothy to bring the cloak which he left in Trias (2 Timothy 4:13) He is bored in the long hours with little to do: he asks that the books and parchments which he left behind in Troas as well be brought to him. (2 Timothy 4:13) Paul is certain that the end of his life is at hand: He writes, “The time of my departure has come…I have finished the course, I have kept the faith,” (2 Timothy 4:6-7). There is the clear anticipation that he has reached the end of his life, he is about ready to “hit the road” and his destination is the throne room of eternity, he is about to hear “Well done good and faithful servant.” But before he does, he has a few word to say.
Yet despite these dark days, the letter opens with Paul’s customary calm and confident expression of faith and grace. Verse 1: Paul an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God according to the promise of the life which is in Christ Jesus, To Timothy, my beloved child: Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.
You all now that a week ago I had the opportunity to be on vacation and one of the events that occurred while I was on vacation was that I got layed over in Las Vegas Nevada after a cancelled flight. Since I am not a high roller, and since the temperature at 9 A.M. was 104 I got the chance to watch a littler daytime T.V. A local Las Vegas Talk show was on and the host was interviewing several young gang members. They were a tough aggressive lot. The oldest was fifteen years old and his nickname was Z-Dog. The interviewer asked, “Why do you seem to have such a hunger for blood and violence? Why are you so ready to die at any moment for your gang?” They responded matter-of-factly, “What else is there?” Their answer was a silent protest against the emptiness of life, against the sense that life had somehow cheated them. Their answer is wide spread, I see and hear people answering while not in the same words, they answer in the same attitude, “What else is there?” As I watched that program and as I travel through life I see the emptiness of people who ought to be hungry for life, looking forward to it but instead disillusioned and despairing; and it is young and old alike. What is being tasted about life leaves so many feeling hopeless, empty, cold and abandoned.
This gives point to Paul’s last words when he declares, at the end of his career, that in the gospel and only in the good news of Jesus, is there found the promise of life. He is talking about life the way God expected it to be lived, a quality of life that one can experience right now, not, as many often think that Christianity teaches, “Pie in the sky by and by.” That is part of it, yes. Life does not end once we “Hit the road” ourselves, it expands infinitely in the hope of the gospel- but it begins NOW. That is the point. This letter highlights for us the quality of life which one can experience right in the midst of circumstances that are falling apart.
So to Timothy, a shy, sensitive and sometimes introverted young man in Ephesus and to you and I, scared, tentative and sometimes shell-shocked believers, Paul describes the ingredients of the “Promise of life in Jesus Christ. That is what he meant by the words, “Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.
Grace is what God gives us that we do not deserve- all the fullness of blessing that is ours without any effort on our part. Grace consists of one thing, forgiveness of sins. That is the chassis upon which we are “Built Lord Tough,” forgiveness of sin. That fact is not only true on the day you are saved is true all the way through. Every day we can start with a fresh, clean slate if we allow the slate to be wiped clean. Yes, I know how easy it is to fall into the trap of guilt and shame. But those are not the tools of God in Grace. Those are the tools of our enemy as he tries to drag us down into the mire and muck. We may not be built with all wheel drive but we are “Built Lord Tough” with ALL GRACE DRIVE. All grace, no guilt.
Then there is mercy. The difference between mercy and grace is that grace gives us what we don’t deserve and mercy withholds what we do deserve. It is God’s mercy that tempers the trials of our lives and adjusts them to our weakness of faith and flesh. It is mercy that led the Lord Jesus Christ to say to his disciples in John 16:12, “I have yet many things to say unto you, but you cannot bear them yet.” He did not say these things until the disciples were strengthened by the coming of the Spirit to enable them to hear what he had to say. The psalmist says, “It is of they mercies that we are consumed.” I am amazed at how many people, even Christians, who think that life ought to be without trial, that there ought to be fun and delight with nothing going wrong. But that is totally unrealistic. In a fallen world, the exact opposite is true. Every day ought to be nothing but disaster and sheer chaos. Every day, every moment ought to be filled with malice, hatred, viciousness and betrayal. The fact that these only come infrequently into our lives is due to the mercies of God. “It is of his mercies that we are not consumed.” We ought to expect nothing but the direst of circumstances and hardships, but actually we are given hours, days, sometimes months and years of joy, blessing, peace, excitement and adventure. That is due to the mercies of God.
Tomorrow, my Katie will be having Knee surgery. It is her second in two years. She injured her knee this past week at soccer practice. I was asked by a friend, “Why do you think that Katie has had such bad luck with that knee?” Actually friends, I think she has had wonderful luck with that knee. She runs around the block all the time, it is a rather uneven sidewalk, she could have injured it a thousand times in the last six months. She has played dozens of soccer games in the past two years, how many holes has she missed, tackles that she has endured, plants, twists and turns that could have done the same or greater damage. Hoe many accidents has she just missed or abductors that have crossed her path and nothing that could, would or should have happened…have not? Get the picture about God’s mercy?
Last week, Gayle and I also got the opportunity to go on a Humvee trip into an area of California called, “The Desolation Wilderness.” When we took off on the trail is was steep and strewn with these huge rocks, boulders really and the Humvee just took every one of them in stride. We commented about how difficult the way was with all the rocks and stuff. The tour guide, a guy named Chris said, “Well actually, all of these rocks were put here in the last couple of years by the jeep club. They were always getting bogged down in the mud and gunk under those rocks and had to be pulled out all the time. These big rocks actually enable us to get better traction.” I thought about this sermon. Is it possible that all those rocks and obstacles we continually complain about are simply “traction” covering the more difficult and dangerous stuff just below the surface that we never see. David can tell you that. The cancer he has just been graced out of, that he just beat, has enabled him to deal with another hardship with peace. I didn’t say, “Without difficulty” but I did say with peace. The third “Promise of Life” that is ours in Christ Jesus…Peace.
Peace is that inner sense of well-being when realize that, no matter how dark it may look, there is a way through the trial that Jesus himself is with you and will go through it with you and that he is totally in control of the event. One theologian says that this type of peace panic proofs you. Are you panic proof? Have you learned that God is in control, that the circumstances that come are of his permitting? Are you sure that he will see you through and it will all come out to a blessing? These are the building blocks of a life that is “Built Lord Tough.” Grace gives us what we don’t deserve. Mercy withholds what we do deserve and keeps us from getting all we have coming; and peace reassures us that it will all work out to our good and God’s glory. That is the “promise of life in Christ Jesus.” I don’t know why we don’t rise up and shout, “Hallelujah!”
The final building block I would like us to examine today is found in verse 7, “For God did not give us the spirit of timidity, (FEAR in the KJV) but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline. There is not a statement in any of Paul’s writings that is practically more important to us than this. Because, if you are like me, you are often oppressed and assaulted by the spirit of fear that by most any other trouble mentioned in scripture. Anxiety, worry, trembling about what is going to happen, something terrible looming or chaos and crisis about to break over us…this is the spirit of fear. We are told here that this does not come from God.
Did it ever occur to you that Christians are forbidden to fear? How many times in scripture do we read Jesus say, “Fear Not!” “Let not your heart be troubled.” Don’t go there. Stop when you feel it rising. God does not give a spirit of fear, that comes from someplace else. The seventh verse says that the spirit of God has given us a spirit of Power and that power is released when we choose to obey. Secondly, we receive a spirit of love which is addressed to other people as well as ourselves. And, third, we receive a spirit of sound judgment. It is taking a sober, realistic appraisal of a situation, deciding the right thing to do and taking the right course of action.
The question might be raised, “How do I develop courage?”
1. Intentionally face your fears.
Put yourself in positions where you have to face your fears. Stop avoiding those relationships that are unpleasant due to unresolved conflicts. Lovingly face them head on. Make an appointment or lunch date to meet with that person. Give yourself no option but to do through with it.
You can apply this to step to any fear that tries to hold you down. One of the ways I overcame a profound fear of public speaking was to place myself in situations where I had to do it. I took a public speaking course. I worked as an activities director for a Christian ministry. Sunday speaking was required. I taught for a year.
No matter what your fear, find a way to intentionally face it and don’t give yourself a way to squirm out of it.
2. Surround yourself with courageous role models.
In school, most everybody had that friend who would say, "I dare you …" 9 times out of 10 you probably would. Certain people inspire or provoke us enough to face what we fear. The best thing you can do is surround yourself with courageous people. Don’t go after the crazies. Go after people who live courageously and motivate you to want to live up a notch. Here’s a spiritual principle:
…Bad company corrupts good character. 1 Corinthians 15:33 (NLT)
The opposite must also be true. Good company produces good character. Hang out with courageous people and they’ll influence you to a new level of boldness.
3. Change your perspective.
Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will know what God wants you to do, and you will know how good and pleasing and perfect his will really is. Romans 12:2 (NLT) Begin to look at every choice through the lenses of faith. Constantly ask yourself if you’re choosing bravely or in a cowardly manner. Ask yourself if it’s pleasing God or someone else.
If you’ll begin to develop courage in your choices you’ll soon find that it takes less effort. What used to frighten you into a catatonic state will no longer be an issue. You’ll find that there’s joy in doing the right thing, the courageous thing.
There is a little ditty that I copied down many years ago, I am not sure where or from whom it came but here it is:
To laugh is to risk appearing the fool.
To weep is to risk appearing sentimental.
To reach out for another is to risk involvement.
To expose feelings is to risk exposing our true self.
To place your ideas, your dreams, before the crowd is to risk loss.
To love is to risk not being loved in return.
To live is to risk dying.
To hope is to risk despair.
To try at all is to risk failure.
But risk we must, because the greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing. The man, the woman, who risks nothing does nothing, has nothing, is nothing.
Now will you have the courage to step forward and allow yourself to be “Built Lord Tough?” If so, hit the road. LET US PRAY.
